Hot bread for a cold night

I love to bake.  I'm very fond of pies, but I truly adore making bread.  This is one of the reasons I can't do low-carb diets -- how can I live without homemade bread?  It's good for the soul to make, it's good exercise to knead, the aroma when baking makes everyone in the house happy, and it's so delicious!

I want to share a recipe I just made.  Pita bread turns out not to be as difficult as previously thought.  It is labor-intensive and the oven gets really hot -- so this is definitely not a summer project.  But the fragrance and flavor of home-made pita fresh from the oven just can't be beat!

Delicious pita bread

This recipe is based on one from 500 Pizzas and Flatbreads by Rebecca Baugniet -- a book that has served me well so far in my quests to make naan and parathas. 

Pita
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup room temperature water
1/2 tbl extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tbl honey
1 tsp salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
1-1/2 cups whole wheat white flour (King Arthur Flour makes an excellent variety)

Combine yeast with water and stir until bubbly (about 30 sec).
Add in olive oil and honey.  I measure the olive oil first so that the honey doesn't stick to the spoon.
Add in the salt and stir.
Add in all of the flour and stir until you have a lump of dough.  Knead 4-5 minutes, flouring hands if necessary, until the dough ball feels smooth and elastic.
Cover and let sit for about 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 500F and if you have a pizza stone, put that on the bottom of the oven before preheating. Put a sheet of aluminum foil on top of the stone so the pitas don't burn.
Punch down and knead briefly, then get a knife and cut into small sections about the size of a golf ball.  Roll them into balls and let rest for about 20 min. 
When the oven is really hot, roll out one or two sections with a rolling pin and slide them off the cutting board or pizza peel (on my wishlist) onto the hot aluminum foil-covered pizza stone or bottom of the oven.
Let bake for 5-6 minutes or until completely puffed and lightly browned.
Remove baked pitas from the oven and put in a serving dish.
Keep on rolling and baking until all the balls are pitas.

Eat with lots of hummus, baba ganoush, felafel, tabbouleh.... yum!